Fortis Acquisition A Significant Opportunity For IHH

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 (Bernama) -- Malaysian-Singaporean private healthcare group IHH Healthcare Bhd still believes that acquiring a 31.1 per cent stake in India's Fortis Healthcare Ltd is a significant and transformational opportunity for the group, despite legal issues surrounding the latter, says managing director and chief executive officer Dr Tan See Leng “In fact, we are already working closely with the Fortis leadership to execute a disciplined turnaround plan. “To that end, Fortis has also completed an acquisition of all the Indian assets of RHT Health Trust in January 2019 as planned and that will streamline our business further,” he told a media briefing on IHH's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Financial Results, conducted via a teleconference call Wednesday. India's Supreme Court has asked Fortis’ former promoters, Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, to appear for the next hearing for the legal case with Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo Co on March 14 to explain the status of the funds allegedly diverted by Fortis to re-purchase the assets of RHT Health Trust in Singapore, in which the Singh brothers and other judgement debtors had substantial interest until 2017. Dr Tan said as at end-December 2018, the Singh brothers held a 0.16 per cent stake in Fortis and tendered their resignation as directors from the Board of Fortis in February 2018. “The lawsuit is between the Singh brothers and Daiichi, and does not involve Fortis or IHH,” he said. For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2018, IHH's net profit slipped to US$154.11 million (RM627.68 million) from US$238.15 million (RM969.95 million) recorded in the corresponding financial year, while revenue increased by three per cent to RM11.52 billion from RM11.14 billion previously. (US$1 = RM4.07) The higher revenue was attributed to sustained organic growth from existing operations, the continuous ramp-up of Gleneagles Hong Kong and Acibadem Altunizade in Turkey as well as contribution from newly acquired Amanjaya Specialist Centre and Fortis. Moving forward, Dr Tan said IHH would focus on integrating the group's newly-acquired assets to ensure a very stable platform. “We have not initiated any new greenfield projects over the short term. We are doing this to ease the pace of our investments to reduce the drag on our margins, focus on execution and ramping up new hospitals,” he added. -- BERNAMA